Art Festival at JOALI Maldives Draws on all Senses – The Maldives' First …

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Apr 1

JOALI Maldives, the Maldives' very first
art-immersive resort, announces its annual Art Week with the April 2023
Imagi-Nature Art Festival. To host the Imagi-Nature Art Festival, JOALI
Maldives has collaborated with respected art consultant Tatiana Gecmen-Waldek.
Guests are invited to revel in the creative spirit of nature and engage in
creative dialogues between international art forms, impressive installations
and local influences at JOALI Maldives.

From April 14-18, guests can experience this
innovative project first-hand, harmoniously blending art and sustainability and
offering creative collaborations with celebrated artists worldwide, including
Aurelie Hoegy, Studio Mameluca, Maja Rohwetter, Barbara Veiga, Jeanne
Susplugas, Le Petite Chef and Hajja and Joule. Channeling the natural splendour
of JOALI Maldives, each immersive installation is created to engage, ignite and
free the imagination. Guests of all ages are invited to interact with
eco-conscious artwork across the beautiful island. What's more, special events
await guests on World Art Day (April 15). More on each artist is included
below.

JOALI Maldives will serve as a gallery in itself
as the resort will become a Sculpture Park, housing four permanent
installations from the Imagi-Nature Art Festival. Hoegy's fluid art piece,
"JOALI Hammock," inspired by natural movement and transcending boundaries
between art and design; Studio Mameluca's vicennial installation of the
Maldives' "One Egg, One World"; Jeanne Susplugas' virtual reality experience,
"Daydreaming" and Rohwetter's multisensory augmented reality app,
"Contingencies," will permanently join the resort's collection. Embodying
movement through her collections of furniture, Hoegy was inspired to create
"JOALI Hammock" by the curves of the island, sumptuous white sand and the
movement of the Indian Ocean. The ocean motif continues in Studio Mameluca's
"White Tern's Bird's Nest," made with natural resources with ocean life in mind
and accompanied by ocean sound customisation. Guests will also be able to dive
into the brain's activity with Suspulugas' installation, where they can
navigate among neurons and synapses through eye movement, and continue their
virtual experience through Rohwetter's expanded dimensions of reality.

To gastronomes' delight, Le Petite Chef will be
redefining the culinary arts with its installation, which will be available in
Saoke, the on-site Japanese restaurant designed by world-renowned restaurant
architect Noriyoshi Muramatsu, for six months. Guests will be able to memorialise
this creativity-inspiring experience with scarves created by Rohwetter, which
will be available in the JOALI Art Studio and La Maison de JOALI boutique.

With a network that includes internationally
renowned galleries, collectors, auction houses and artists, Gecmen-Waldek has
worked as a consultant with greats such as Giorgio Armani, Cartier, Etro, Roger
Vivier, Maison Kitsuné Vhernier, Huawei and ACNE. Now, as a valued JOALI
Maldives partner, Gecmen-Waldek is poised to bring an extraordinary selection
of works by contemporary artists to the resort in the form of exhibitions,
performances, limited editions and permanent installations. Born in Austria and
raised in Paris, Gecmen-Waldek is passionate about fostering creative collaborations
and producing cultural content that inspires the inner artist within each of
us. This is embodied through her slogan, "experience art instead of seeing
art."

As a female-owned and connected retreat, JOALI
Maldives is committed to gender equality and the development of talented women.
Through the resort's Women in Arts program, JOALI Maldives offers local women a
platform to convey their message through the arts by helping them hone their
artistic skills with on-site trainings and workshops, which are facilitated by
the resort's resident artist. The artworks and local crafts are then displayed
in the JOALI Art Studio for guests to purchase. The Imagi-Nature Art Festival
will put female artists at the front of the curation, with highlights including
Veiga, whose live performance of "Earth Layers" will give visibility to planet
conservation; Suspulugas, whose work offers a reflection, not devoid of humour,
derision and cynicism, on the ills of society; Rohwetter, whose cross-medial
approach blurs the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds; and
local Maldivian sisters Hajja and Joule, who will be collaborating with Hoegy
to create pillows and embroidery with guests.

JOALI Maldives not only showcases its engagement
with the arts and the local community but also with sustainability through
actions in honour of World Oceans Day (June 8). The resort has always been
committed to environmental protection and the local population through various
initiatives, including the Olive Ridley Project, protecting sea turtles and
their habitats through rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research and
education. Although each piece of art throughout the retreat is unique, they
are all united by a commitment to sustainability. Many pieces are made from
recycled waste, clay or other natural materials and inspire a more sustainable
lifestyle. At the Imagi-Nature Art Festival, Parley for the Oceans and Utöpia
will be presenting a collaboration with contemporary artist Jeppe Hein, a
limited-edition flowing flag in the ocean titled, "We Are All Interconnected,"
in support of Parley for the Oceans' Global Cleanup Network. The installation
is made with ocean plastic, a premium material created from upcycled plastic
waste recovered from remote islands, waters and coastlines by Parley for the
Oceans, and 100% of the proceeds will help fund JOALI Maldives' programs for
plastic interception, education, communication, material science and eco-innovation.